New research on the reaction of British Muslims to TV coverage of the September 11 attacks and the war in Afghanistan will make grim reading for broadcasting executives. The industry knows it has a problem with the way it portrays ethnic minorities, in particular the Muslim community. In response, the Cultural Diversity Network has been set up to increase ethnic minority representation both on and off screen.

But the interviews with nearly 300 British Muslims on which the report is based provide a stark reminder that this particular group still feels its opinions are ignored by broadcasters. Moreover, After September 11: TV News and Transnational Audiences reveals that there is widespread mistrust among British Muslims of what most viewers regard as reliable sources of news.

Complaints about UK TV news after September 11 include a lack of challenging debate, sensationalist reporting and anti-Arab and anti-Muslim assumptions. Those interviewed felt that the UK media generally followed the line adopted by their US counterparts, with news agendas shaped by Pentagon briefings. They were also critical of a perceived failure to explain the plight of the Palestinians, or highlight the scale of Afghan civilian casualties.

The fiercest criticism was reserved for cable and satellite channels. BBC News 24 was singled out for an alleged lack of analysis. "There is no excuse for BBC News 24 not providing its viewers with better background information about the conflicts that led to the attacks," said one interviewee.

CNN was accused of manipulating and censoring information. One person interviewed for the report said they felt CNN "wanted to get the American angle and propaganda over to the Arab world". Many also perceived the channel as being pro-Israeli.

On a brighter note, BBC2's current affairs show Newsnight was praised as providing a rare source of in-depth analysis. British Muslims also appreciated TV and radio chat and phone-in shows, where it was felt a wider range of views got an airing. BBC Radio 5 Live was cited as one of the few open platforms for debate.

The challenge for news executives is to stay relevant to the western/Christian majority, while also serving ethnic and religious minorities. Nowhere is this dilemma better illustrated in the report than in the reaction of British Muslims to the controversial edition of Question Time broadcast two days after the attacks. The show, in which US ambassador to Britain Phil Lader was almost reduced to tears by the anti-American sentiment of the studio audience, provoked hundreds of angry calls to the BBC. BBC director-general Greg Dyke made a formal apology and said the show had been "inappropriate" so soon after the atrocities.

But many British Muslims welcomed this programme precisely because of the diversity of views presented. And they were disappointed by Dyke's apology, which was seen by one interviewee as "an early warning sign of the UK's and BBC's complicity with the US government".

Marie Gillespie, lecturer in sociology at the Open University, who oversaw the After September 11 project, warns that if broadcasters do not address the issue of how they accommodate the views of the Muslim community, they risk losing this audience altogether to services such as Arabic satellite news channel Al-Jazeera. "It's time for news broadcasters to wake up to the fact that they face serious competition in how they communicate news," she says.

"They also need to find ways of addressing the information deficit among viewers of low educational backgrounds, as it is among these viewers that we found the most dogmatic forms of thinking."

,b>· After September 11: TV News and Transnational Audiences has been funded by organisations including the British Film Institute, the Open University, the broadcasting standards council and the independent television commission. The report's findings will be discussed at a three-day seminar in London, starting today